Unit 36 : Task 3

Interview #1 (Radio):

Purposes:

My first interview with the student will be a radio interview, so its purpose would more likely be in a radio documentary. However, I plan to use the voice of the interviewee as a voice over in my documentary so the actual purpose of the interview would be for a television documentary. The documentaries purpose is to try and educate people and make people aware of the increasing problem that the United Kingdom has regards to homelessness.

Interview Planning:

Location: I have chosen to conduct the interview at my house because it is easily accessible and because it is only an audio interview I don’t need to worry about all the constraints I would if it was being filmed.

Date and Time: The interview will be conducted on the 25^th of April at roughly 17:00PM.

Appropriate Setting: The interview was conducted at my house because it was accessible easily by both of us, because it is only an audio interview I don’t need to worry about the setting of the interview.

Recording Methods: I will be recording the interview on my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, on the voice recorder app.

Ambient Consideration: The only ambient noise that I would need to take into consideration is the noise from my family in my house. When conducting the interview, I don’t want any background noise of my parents or siblings talking or making other noises. I will make sure that they are aware I am conducting an interview and will ask them to be quiet.

Talent Liaison Consideration: When talking with the interviewee before-hand I made sure that she was okay to film on the day, and I also gave a copy of the questions to her so she could see what she would need to be talking about.

Requirement of Interview: There were no requirements of the interview.

Structuring:

Question Formulation: For this interview, I wanted to create a list of questions that would be designed to show the audience that the younger generation who will hopefully be the future of the world are very unaware of this massive problem. The questions would be informative for the viewer and they would be obviously open and closed questions for the interviewee. When introducing the interviewee, I would ask her name and age so that the audience would be able to get a better understanding of who is being interviewed. I also formulated the questions on what I felt would be interesting for the viewer to hear about, and what I wanted to cover in the documentary.

Scripting of Interview Input: I will be conducting the interview so will be asking the questions myself, I will try to ask them in the same order of which I had pre-given to them. In the editing stages I will be removing my voice and having the questions on the screen so my voice isn’t that vital.

Consideration of Interview Style: My interview style for this interview will be informational and light-hearted. I want to ask the questions that they viewers want to hear to give them as much information about the topic as possible, but I also don’t want the interviewee to film uncomfortable. So, I will give a light-hearted approach too.

Definition of Structural Progression: The introduction to the interview will be the interviewee giving her name and age to the audience. As said before this gives the audience a feel of who the interviewee is, the progressive questions will ask about if she knows about anything out there to help with homeless and if she is aware of companies that help. The summary will be a question asking her if the government are doing all they can to help the homeless, I really am looking for a sound bite in this question that I can use to draw the audience in more.

Preparation:

Client Liaison: When talking with the interviewee before-hand I made sure that she was okay to film on the day, and I also gave a copy of the questions to her so she could see what she would need to be talking about.

Talent Management: When speaking with the interviewee we both agreed on the time and place of which we would be meeting to conduct the interviews, as well as the interview questions I would be asking.

Interview Questions:

1.      What is your name?

2.      What is your age?

3.      Are you aware of the increasing problem of people sleeping rough in the UK?

4.      Do you know of any charities that help the homeless?

5.      Do you know of anything else that helps the homeless?

6.      Do you think the government are doing all they can to help the homeless?

7.      Do you think the government are trying to hide homelessness to try and keep their wealthy reputation?

8.      In a country perceived as a wealthy nation, why do you think it has such an increasing problem?

Interview #2 (Television):

Purposes:

The purpose of my second interview would only be television documentary, this is because it is a studio interview with the presenter of a documentary. The interview will feature in the second part of the documentary and has visual as well as audio featuring. The documentaries purpose is to try and educate people and make people aware of the increasing problem that the United Kingdom has regards to homelessness.

Interview Planning:

Location: The location for the second interview will be at West Kent College’s studio, this is because it has everything needed already in place for an interview. As well as it being the ideal place for an interview.

Date and Time: We will be filming the interview on the 23^rd of April at around 11:00PM.

Appropriate Setting: The setting I have chosen is the West Kent College studio, this is because it is the perfect location for an interview. It has a backdrop that can be changed from black to white to green. As well as the professional equipment needed to film the interview like lighting, sound etc.

Recording Methods: I will be filming the interview on my Canon DSLR, 25fps 1080p. As well as recording the audio on my Rode Microphone attachment, and a tie microphone.

Ambient Consideration: Because we are filming in a studio we won’t have to worry about ambient noises because the room is sound proofed and when we are filming people will be aware so will not come in a disturb us.

Talent Liaison Consideration: I would have to speak with the presenter to make sure that he is okay to film on the day set, and would give him a copy of the questions so he has a heads up of what he can say and if he wanted to change any questions.

Requirement of Interview: There were no requirements of the interview.

Structuring:

Question Formulation: For the second interview, I wanted to formulate specific questions that would help the presenter reflect on his time out on the streets seeing what it is like to be homeless. The questions would be informative for the viewer and they would be obviously open and closed questions for the interviewee.

Scripting of Interview Input: I will be conducting the interview so will be asking the questions myself, I will try to ask them in the same order of which I had pre-given to them. In the editing stages I will be removing my voice and having the questions on the screen so my voice isn’t that vital.

Consideration of Interview Style: My interview style for this interview will be informational and light-hearted. I want to ask the questions that they viewers want to hear to give them as much information about the topic as possible, but I also don’t want the interviewee to film uncomfortable. So, I will give a light-hearted approach too.

Definition of Structural Progression: The introduction to the second interview will be the presenter reflecting on his time spent as a homeless person. The questions will be formulated to be reflective so when he is speaking we can have cut away shots to footage of him being there. The progressive questions will also be about what is out there for homeless people and what the government are/should be doing to help the homeless. The summary question will ask the presenter how can people help. This is an important question because I want the presenter to give a charity that people can donate to, as well as say that people should ignore them because they are people too.

Preparation:

Client Liaison: I would have to speak with the presenter to make sure that he is okay to film on the day set, and would give him a copy of the questions so he has a heads up of what he can say and if he wanted to change any questions.

Talent Management: When speaking with the interviewee we both agreed on the time and place of which we would be meeting to conduct the interviews, as well as the interview questions I would be asking.

Interview Questions:

1.      When the director came to you and pitched his idea for the documentary, why did you want to be part of it?

2.      When you were sitting on the bench with your sleeping bag, what where you feeling? Especially when the cyclist was cycling past?

3.      Was there any point filming the documentary that you felt unsafe, or wanted to stop filming?

4.      Before filming this documentary did you know that there was such a big problem in the United Kingdom, regards to homelessness?

5.      Do you think this increasing problem is being hidden by the government to try and keep its wealthy reputation high?

6.      Do you think there is enough out there to support people who are homeless?

7.      What do you think should be in place?

8.      How can people help, who want to help?

Unit 36 : Task 2

Interview #1 (Radio):

Purpose of Research:

Key Facts About Topic: The idea for my documentary is to explore the issues that relate to the increasing problem of homelessness in the United Kingdom. For my first interview, I wanted in my documentary I wanted to talk to a student that has no link to homelessness so that I can get a feel of if homelessness is that widely known about with my generation. I have chosen to do a radio interview because I want the voice of the interviewee with facts playing on in the background.

Potential Issues: The only issue that I would face interviewing this student is that they have many exams coming up so availability would be very slim. I would have to talk with the student to make sure that they are free from school, revision, and other activities in their spare time. Because of this issue I would need to make sure that I have quick access to the equipment needed to record the interview and the questions that would be in the interview.

Areas of Interest: The location for where I will be conducting my interview would most likely be at my house, the interviewee is able to get to my house easily and because it is only a radio interview I won’t need any fancy setting.

Relevant Matters in Background of Interviewee: The background question that I will be asking would be ‘what is your name?’ and ‘how old are you?’. Although these questions won’t be featuring in my documentary through audio form, when the presenter will introduce the interviewee he will say her name and her age. As well as when the voice of the interviewee is playing her name and age will hopefully feature on the screen to remind the audience.

Preparatory Research:

Previous Interviews: There is a fantastic documentary that follows a homeless person on BBC Radio 4, it last for around 30 mins and is just audio. The presenter did a very excellent job of explaining the setting around them for the views who are unable to see anything because of it being on the radio. All though the presenter didn’t ask random people on the street, the radio documentary is still an excellent example because it covers many of the questions I wanted to ask.

Here is the transcript to the BBC Radio 4 ‘The Hidden Homeless’ radio documentary:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/01_11_16_fo4_hiddenhomeless.pdf

Here is the link to the BBC Radio 4 ‘The Hidden Homeless’ radio documentary:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b080t8nn

Key Facts and Dates About the Topic: The key facts that I wanted to make sure I get across in my documentary is ‘what we will be doing’, ‘how we get our message across’, and ‘how can people help’. It is important that I get these messages across because these are the main questions I want to cover in the documentary. I will be filming my documentary in three days, and editing in two. The three days of shooting will unfortunately be quite spread out, with the first day of shooting being location shooting, second day of shooting being interview in studio, and the final day of shooting the audio interview with the student.

Previous Activities: The student I have chosen to interview hasn’t had any previous history in the homeless history, however she has in fact featured in another one of my projects. The project being my music video for college ‘SHUT UP AND DANCE’, she was the main actress featured in the music video.

Over Views on Your Idea: After speaking with my peers, friends, and family members I received extremely positive feedback. All who I told and asked whether they liked the idea, all said that they did, and looked forward to seeing it come to life. They also said that they liked that I was tackling a subject that hasn’t been talked about and semi-neglected by the government.

Comment Regarding Interviewee by Others: I also spoke to the same people about my choice of interviewee. In which they all said that it was a very clever idea to have a young student give their views on the subject. They liked that I chose a student to interview because they are the future of our world and liked that by interviewing one student about the subject it would give an insight into how much is taught to our generation.

Methods of Research:

Primary Research: For my primary research, I decided to again ask my peers, friends, and family members what questions I should ask my interviewee. I gave them a list of my questions that I had pre-written and asked whether they were good enough questions. If they didn’t think one was good, then I would ask for suggestions on what would be a good question and noted them down.

Secondary Research: For my secondary research into this interview composed of looking on the governments website and finding government facts about homelessness that I could try to implement in to the questions that I ask my interviewee. I also looked at the BBC Radio 4 ‘The Hidden Homeless’ radio documentary to see what they cover in their documentary and try and take inspiration and come up with more questions to ask my interviewee.

Interview #2 (Video):

Purpose of Research:

Key Facts About Topic: The idea for my documentary is to explore the issues that relate to the increasing problem of homelessness in the United Kingdom. For my second interview, I wanted in my documentary I wanted to talk to the presenter who would feature in the documentary, this is because he could reflect on what his thoughts where at the time of filming and his views on the matter. I have chosen to do a video interview because I wanted the second video we filmed to be a reflective theme and have the director, presenter, and camera operator reflect on their opinions and thoughts on the first documentary.

Potential Issues: The only potential issue that I could possibly face in this interview would be booking out the studio at West Kent College. At this stage of the year, many people have production units so booking out the studio would be tricky because it would most likely be booked out by other people. To make sure I get the day that I want to film in the studio, I would have to make sure that I book out the studio a week in advance.

Areas of Interest: The area that I would like to film like said before is the West Kent College studio, this is because we have the right equipment in the studio to be able to quickly and successfully shoot our interview. The studio has a good backdrop that I would like to use, as well as lighting to get the right look on camera.

Relevant Matters in Background of Interviewee: The background question that I will be asking would be questions about how he was feeling during the time of the main shoot in Tunbridge Wells town, as well as his views on the homeless. While he is answer his questions about his feelings at the time and his views on the homeless we will have secondary footage playing on screen to break up the interview to make it more interesting.

Preparatory Research:

Previous Interviews: An example of what I am trying to achieve I looked at the ITV show ‘This Morning’ where the presenters Phillip and Holly are sitting on the sofa and are looking back at their favourite moments of the week. They both give their favourite moment of the week and discuss why they enjoyed it and have another laugh about it. Although this hasn’t got anything to do with my homeless documentary it is a good example of the reflective aspect of the second video and this interview type.

ITV ‘This Morning’ Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inWmrJkwzIY

Key Facts and Dates About the Topic: The key facts that I wanted to make sure I get across in my documentary is ‘what we will be doing’, ‘how we get our message across’, and ‘how can people help’. It is important that I get these messages across because these are the main questions I want to cover in the documentary. I will be filming my documentary in three days, and editing in two. The three days of shooting will unfortunately be quite spread out, with the first day of shooting being location shooting, second day of shooting being interview in studio, and the final day of shooting the audio interview with the student.

Previous Activities: The presenter that I have chosen like the first interviewee doesn’t have any link with homelessness, however again has featured in another one of my projects I have done at college. The unit that the presenter featured in was my Instructional Video in which he again presented how to use the green screen in the studio at West Kent College.

Over Views on Your Idea: After speaking with my peers, friends, and family members I received extremely positive feedback. All who I told and asked whether they liked the idea, all said that they did, and looked forward to seeing it come to life. They also said that they liked that I was tackling a subject that hasn’t been talked about and semi-neglected by the government.

Comment Regarding Interviewee by Others: I also spoke to the same people about my choice of interviewee. They all liked that I would be interviewing the presenter after the first video, because it would give the viewer a better insight into the views and feelings of the presenter who experience what had happened.

Methods of Research:

Primary Research: For my primary research, I decided to again ask my peers, friends, and family members what questions I should ask my interviewee. I gave them a list of my questions that I had pre-written and asked whether they were good enough questions. If they didn’t think one was good, then I would ask for suggestions on what would be a good question and noted them down.

Secondary Research: For my secondary research into this interview composed of looking on the governments website and finding government facts about homelessness that I could try to implement in to the questions that I ask my interviewee. I also looked at the ITV show ‘This Morning’ to see how they portray the reflective aspect in the segment of their show.

Unit 36 : Task 1

Question Types:

Open: An open question is a question that wants a detailed answer and wants the information that the interviewee has. It will be said in a certain way so the interviewee will give their opinion or emotions on the said subject.

Closed: A closed question is a question which would be asked to get a one word answer, the answer would commonly be a Yes or a No. A closed question is good when the interviewer wants a quick answer on a subject or is running out of time in the interview so doesn't want a lengthy answer.

Single: Single question is a standalone question normally very direct that the interviewee would struggle to try and avoid answering. You would find a single question in a hard news interview where the interviewer wants to get straight answers.

Multiple: Multiple questions are multiple questions that are asked to the interviewee which all have a common theme and may be building up to what the interviewer is looking for. Multiple questions are normally suggestive and would be found in light-hearted interviews and in the confidence building stage of said interview.

Direct: A direct question is a question that is straight to the point, it wants a straight answer and it would be very hard for the interviewee to counter the question. You would find a direct question in hard news or an expository interview.

Suggestive: A suggestive question is a type of question that hints at the real topic, but allows the interviewee to come to it themselves. The interviewer would most likely need multiple suggestive questions to get to the answer they were originally looking for. If the interviewee is very skilled at what they do they would understand that they are being asked a suggestive question and respond appropriately.

Interview Styling:

Hard News: Hard news is a very serious interview style, it would generally be about hard hitting topics or serious topics like Politics, Murder, War, Religion etc. The question types would be very direct, open, and closed. This would be because they would want instant answers so they can cover what they want to ask in the time slot they have.

Combative: Combative interviews are normally very aggressive and the interviewer can come across as very determined to get to the point of the interview. The question types again would be direct, open, and closed. This is again because they would want straight answers about the subject and so they can move on to the next question quickly. You would find that a combative style would be for subjects like politics, life stories etc.

Light-Hearted: A light-hearted question is a light question that necessarily doesn’t need to be about the topic but would be asked to ease the interviewee into the interview. They would be used in an emotional interview or personal response to an event.

Entertainment: An entertainment interview would most likely be an interview with a celebrity where they have many jokes about what they are talking about and make the crowd laugh a lot. You would generally find it with a celebrity, and they would be talking about certain subjects, normally because they are trying to feature their work on the program.

Investigative: Investigative interviews are interviews that try to find out as much information about the subject being discussed. This style of interview is normally either biased or unbiased to the story and can be easily mistaking for the other interview style of hard news because it is very straight to the point with the questions.

Promotional: A promotional interview is as it sounds a promotion for the interviewee to try and promote their product or service they are selling. This is more common for celebrities to be promoting their book or their new up-coming film. The question types would be open and closed and most likely both suggestive and direct. The interviews would also be light-hearted with a bit of humour to lighten the mood.

Structuring:

Introduction: An introduction in an interview is when the interviewer introduces the interviewee and themselves to the audience, and sums up the topic being discussed. This could be done in multiple ways, showing a small clip about the topic at the start, saying what the topic will be about, or when they introduce the interviewee they say their profession which sometimes gives a hint about the topic. For example, if the interview was about animal rights, when they introduce the interviewee they would say this is Helen, she is an animal rights activist.

Developmental Questions: The development question is a single question that set the interview, it eases the interviewee into the interview, trying to make them more confident. A common question that an interviewer would ask is "How are you today" or "We are very pleased for you to be here today". It is a simple question or statement that makes the interviewee more comfortable and in turn would make them open up more later on with the key questions.

Confidence Building: This is similar to a development question where they try to build the confidence of the interviewee for the key questions. However, these are actual questions that they would ask the interviewee, but only expecting a yes or no answer, these would be closed questions they ask.

Key Questions: The key questions are the main questions to do with the topic at hand, the length of the questions and answers do depend on the topic. However, these questions are more open questions that expect a more formed answer that the interviewer could bounce other questions off. The key questions would usually be found in the middle of the interview so that the interviewer can build up the confidence of the interviewee so they can try to get the best possible answers.

Soundbites: Sound bites are small clips taken from the interview that sum it all up, they can be used in trailers for the interview, used in videos to do with the topic, or at the beginning of the news program to introduce what will be shown and spoken about. The sound bites take some of the key information being said to try and draw the audience into listening or watching.

Summary: The summary is a quick sum up of what has been said in the interview, with the interviewer trying to finish the interview. They may ask one last quick question that would be closed to get a quick answer.

Wind-Up: The wind-up is the final part to every interview with the interviewer thanking the interviewee, sometimes leaving with a light-hearted joke or question. If it was an artist in the interview, they will most likely be asked to perform which will finish the interview.

Communication Skills:

Building Rapport: Building Rapport is when the interviewer builds up the relation between themselves and the interviewee to try and create a trust. They do this so the interviewee opens up more about the said topic, ways in which they do this is by their body language, what they say e.g. humour. Even if the interviewer doesn’t agree they will still try and build rapport so that the interview is successful.

Active Listening: Active listening is when the interviewer responds appropriately to what the interviewee has said and shows that they are engaging with them. This would be done by nodding, smiling, and their body language. They would also need to listen so that they can ask a follow up question if the answer wasn’t sufficient enough for them.

Body Language: Body language is how the interviewer is sitting and how they are visually reacting to what is being said by the interviewee. A positive body language from the interviewer can build the confidence of the interviewee and end up resulting in lengthier and more detailed answers. Compared to a negative body language it can see hostile to the interviewee and they give short answers or even want to end the interview if they feel it’s appropriate.

Journalistic Context:

Print: In magazine and newspapers you would find print interviews, these are different to video interviews because you can’t visually see them or hear them, you have to read them. The way in which they are set out is the question will be in a bold or italic font and then the answer would be below. Unlike video interviews you wouldn’t get interruptions you would get straight answers from the interviewee. Interviews on print can be many different interview styles, these include reports, hard news, straight forward, and editorial.

Television: Every interview style is shown in some way or another on television, many programs will show a certain type of interview style. Channels like Channel 4 who are known to have hard news, combative, and investigative interviews because they are a news channel and get the information for the viewers they want to hear. Whereas a chat show like the Johnathon Ross show would have entertainment and promotional interviews with famous celebrities. It would be set out like the structure set out above.

Radio: Radio interviews are similar to television interviews but just without the visual aspect. The structure is exactly the same, and the interviewer will give off the same body language to build a trust between there selves and the interviewee. However, you are just hearing the voices of the two people, so the interviewer will introduce the interviewee at the start and round off by saying thank you to the person so people know who is talking. The interviewee can be interviewed in the studio or over the phone which is projected to the listeners at home or in their cars.

Online: Online interviews are in many different formats with print interviews on newspaper and magazine websites, and video interviews from news reports or documentaries on websites like BBC IPlayer or ITV hub. However, many interviews can be found on YouTube where random people can post the interviews for other people to watch. All styles of interviews can be found online and almost all interviews recorded in recent years can be found online somewhere.

News: Interviews on the news are normally conducted by the presenter and would most likely be hard news or informative. The interviewee commonly would be an eye witness, a police officer, a member of the public, a politician, or a specialist in a subject. A news interview is set out to get the information without being biased (depends on the news station) so they can inform the public.

Sport: During a sporting event, you would find a post-match interview with a presenter asking ex-players or game specialists questions about what they think the score might be or past games etc. This can be found in sporting events like football games, rugby games, cricket matches, and many more. You also see cut away VT’s of interviews with some of the players or managers and after the game an after match interview about how they felt the game went.